I love unions and the labour movement because they stop ruthless businesses from treating their workers like slaves and paying them as little as they can get away with. Trade unions stand for human dignity and the common good and help make the world a better and more equal place.

Free trade unions are at the heart of a civilised society. The right for us as working people to organise ourselves is essential to gain decent wages, fair terms and conditions, pensions and health and safety standards. It is Trade Unions that can challenge discrimination, bullying and workplace stress.

The Tories aim to be in power for a generation, and are trying to fix the system to make that happen.

This Trade Union Bill is a deliberate attack on the labour movement, because we are the only opposition to the Conservatives. We prove that every day in our workplaces and in our communities – and that’s what the Tories don’t like.

Tory MP David Davis, has told The Independent the attack on Labour party funding hidden within the Trade Union Bill is "borderline immoral".

His admission, added to the growing opposition to the Bill in the Lords, makes it clear the Tories know the Bill will have an unfair impact on the funding of the Labour Party. They are continuing to push the Bill forward regardless of its impact on our democracy.

That’s not surprising given that the right wing press have us pegged as a bunch of blokes with megaphones calling a strike every now and again to defend some unreasonable perk that the rest of the population don’t get (like a decent pension for instance).

"I want to put fairness at the heart of everything the London Mayor does"

You may not know this, but I am the son of a bus driver who grew up on a council estate in South London. It was through my father’s work as a bus driver that I first learned the value of trade unions. Without unions fighting to protect his pay and his conditions at work, life could have been a lot harder for me and my brothers and sister.

Unions work tirelessly to stop workers like my father from being exploited. It is through the work of unions, in partnership with the Labour Party, that we have secured things such as the right to maternity pay, the right to paid holiday, and the right to withhold your labour. The Tories want to erode those rights, and they want to stop you from being able to do your job properly.

Labour’s Leader in the Lords, Angela Smith with some positive news from Peers debates on the Trade Union Bill

The old adage “the devil is in the detail” might have been invented for the House of Lords. Successive governments have learned – often the hard way – that Peers take the detailed scrutiny of legislation very seriously. As many ministers have discovered, just saying something is the case doesn’t make it so.